What to do / difficult time

TheDean · 8 Jun 2010 at 10:04

Hi all,

Sadly my Mum passed away recently and, amongst other things, I now have to sell her car. It's an '06 VW beetle and I'm not sure how to progress really.

Questions:

1. Does Tax 'die' with the owner of the vehicle? If so, should I SORN it now?
2. Insurance has expired on the vehicle. Issues?
3. There are a couple of lights on the dash, scratches on a couple of panels and one of the rear light's casings is cracked. Essentially, not in the best of conditions. Should I take it to a VW Garage and pay for all this to be done, or just sell it as is?

I'd appreciate as much help as you can all give, as understandably not thinking straight at the moment.

Cheers,

TheDean

TheDean · 8 Jun 2010 at 10:25

vanandjuanunited said:
Sorry to hear that mate. Not a nice thing to go through.

in answer to your questions

1. No tax is fine until it expires
2. If kept on driveway etc it will be fine unless someone nicks it - also test drives will be awkward etc
3. Gat a price from a non VW garage and decide from there if its worth it or not

Thanks buddy.

1. No Tax is fine?! Really?
2. It's on my drive, so off the road. Test drives would be awkward, that's why I'm thinking of selling through http://www.sure-sell.info/ or webuyanycar - Are they any good?

TheDean · 8 Jun 2010 at 10:46

Peerzy said:
He didn't mean "no tax is fine", he meant "no, the tax is fine" as in, tax does not die with the owner. Someone has paid for the car to be taxed for a year so the car is taxed for a year.

Do not sell it to webuyanycar or companies like that, you will get a lot more selling it privately or phoning a VW garage and explaining the circumstances.

I think though that it was some kind of special tax...i.e. there was a concession because she was registered disabled. Somone mentioned that I may have to take this disc to swap it for a 'normal' tax disc and/or buy a normal one. So complicated...

TheDean · 8 Jun 2010 at 11:07

vanandjuanunited said:
also test drives will be awkward etc

On this point, how would test drives work? I mean, if the car was in my name, and I was fully comp on it, presumably others would just be 3rd party?! What if they crashed it?

paradigm said:
If it was taxed on disability then yes, it will need re-taxing. I went through this with my Father's car and it was a bit of a PITA if I'm honest. You need the V5 to be in your name, and also insurance on the vehicle. Now, we had re-insured it for my brother, but given the timeframe only had the original V5 in my fathers name. After a near two-hour argument at the DVLA office in Manchester, they finally caved and let me tax it there and then, but my god it was a ballache.

You'd think they would have special circumstances in the event of death, but no, they are just as retarded and slow as ever.

That sounds like a huge hassle.....not ideal. I'll give them a ring tomorrow and see what they say.

TheDean · 8 Jun 2010 at 11:31

DiamondMark said:
This is one of those situations where a quick sale to a trader might be worth the lower selling price.

No taxing, no insuring, just see it off.

Going to ring some VW garages tomorrow to see if they want to take if off my hands. Will post prices when I get them. Thanks guys for your help

TheDean · 11 Jun 2010 at 11:21

Spoke to DVLA today...bloke basically said I don't need to transfer the car into my name, and if I sell it privately, I can just fill out the sellers slip thing and enclose a covering letter explaining I am an executor of the estate. That sound Ok?!

May just take it into the local garage for a full look in. There's also a light coming on in the dash which is worrying. After having a look, Google says it's an ASR/ESP Control Lamp K155. Is that bad?!

EDIT: Spoke to a Garage. Bloke was a complete arse, so made my mind up I'm selling it privately, and no major rush for cash.

TheDean · 11 Jun 2010 at 14:19

Fellas - You are all stars, thank you for all your help so far. I will make sure the garage has a vagcom...I would hope it does, but it's only a small indy, so not sure.

Wicksta - Thank you for the links to the lights! I'll defo get one of those and let the garage fit it, unless it's an easy job?

TheDean · 11 Jun 2010 at 14:43

DiamondMark said:
Have a go yourself, just take your time

What exactly did the DVLA bloke say about the tax situation? You dont want to end up with a bill from them at a later date.

Will do - and the indy have a vag com, so all good! Spoken to the DVLA again. Basically he said that I can drive the car (under my fully comp policy, I can drive it 3rd party only) to and from the MOT centre, and there I will get an MOT, and all other works done ot it, then drive it back to the house.

If I want to tax it, the bloke said I have to get insurance on the car, which I find ridiculous. I'm not sure really, as I'm not going to pay £600 for a years worth of insurance just to tax it.....ALTHOUGH - can I not insure it, tax it, then cancel the insurance policy under the 14 day cooling off period?!

TheDean · 11 Jun 2010 at 15:03

Peerzy said:
Yup, or day insure it, or a cheeky photoshop.

After all the only person checking you have insurance is the old lady in the Post Office.

Check your trust

DiamondMark said:
Yea you could get temp insurance just to tax it, or get a years worth then cancel, but what happens if it gets nicked or test drives while selling it?

It's not going to get nicked (touch wood) and for test drives, the tester would have to show me he is insured to drive this car, otherwise no test! That's right isn't it?

TheDean · 11 Jun 2010 at 15:25

DiamondMark said:
Be careful, dont go doing something daft to save 50 quid

But surely if I just day insure it (where on earth would I day insure it anyway?!) the Post office woman will just say:

"You've only insured it for one day and you want 6 months tax?! Bugger off!

TheDean · 11 Jun 2010 at 15:38

DiamondMark said:
Insurance is insurance, its none of her business for how long.

Just check with the temp insurance company they do allow taxing, i think there is one that does not.

Just google "temp insurance"

That's odd.....Do you know which temp insurance one is the one not to go for?!

TheDean · 11 Jun 2010 at 16:04

Sorted...spoke to the DVLA again. Just going to day insure it (they said that's fine) then get everything changed over to my name then and there at the DVLA offices in Newcastle. This assumes everything is Ok for it's MOT tomorrow, I'll just do it on Monday morning and let you know how I get on.

TheDean · 14 Jun 2010 at 12:47

Ok, just a quick update. I took it to the garage on Sat morning to have everything looked at by the owner. I told him the circumstances, and explained I wanted to have it 'done up' for sale i.e. clear up and panel's with scratches, repair front wing, sort stone chip marks, replace drivers rear light, look at disc pads, clear & fix dash warning lights and, finally, MOT.

They're ploughing through that lot, then I'm going to tax it for 6 months and chuck it on Autotrader and see how we get on. Looking on there, the dealers seem to be asking way over the odds, and mine has done less miles, and will have a lot of new gear etc at sale. In terms of pricing, how should I go about it and after spending this money on it, what should I be looking to realistically get for it do you think?

TheDean · 14 Jun 2010 at 14:39

DiamondMark said:
Sadly what you spend wont put value on the car, it will just bring it up to scratch with the others for sale.

Have a look what the others are going for and price it accordingly.

Of course, thank you. I just don't want to be in a position of throwing good money after bad so to speak. The Garage said they will gave me a range of options in terms of what they will offer for what cost etc...I just don't want to tax, MOT then fix the niggles just to effectively 'lose' money when selling it.